Day 9: 20,018 words. Worn out.

Today was a struggle yet again. It took me about 6 hours to write the 6,000 words, with the last 1800 churned out in the last 45 minutes because I decided to stop giving a shit about where this was going. I also stole roughly 1500 words from various sources including your own novels and a Sparks notes analysis of the character of Hamlet. I was really scraping the bottom of the barrel!

But now I have arrived at a turning point in the plot. Ruby has just discovered that contrary to hir belief (and Roux's statement), Roux does not work at the hotel. Seth has not been sending hir telegrams, and the town where Seth said she was going for work, does not actually exist.

So I wanna know... what should happen next? Should the other kids be involved in the plot, or will they become Ruby's allies? Is Roux working with, or against Seth? How is Justin Timberlake involved, and what is the significance of the white belt?

An excerpt:
Roux and Justin had moved off to the one place Ruby was unsure about following them – the dance floor. Broken Aero was really blowing it up out there, and the crowd was thrashing away in delight. A Broken Aero mosh pit was the last place Ruby wanted to be. Ze had never really learned to dance – hir sole dance instruction being the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and every teen movie involving a prom. In those movies, the dancers always moved uncertainly, zombie-like, with no apparent connection between their movements and the music. This was how Ruby had learned to dance. Unfortunately, the Jackie’s Place crowd that night bore no resemblance to the prom movies of Ruby’s past. They thrust their hips, banged their heads, and pushed each other around. They yelled to each other, “Hey, nineteen ninety three called! It wants its mosh pit back!” and then screamed with laughter. In the middle of the crowd, seemingly untouchable by the mayhem around them, stood Roux in a brightly-colored sequined dress with a plunging neckline (her trademark), a giant bouffant blonde wig, and with a sequined flower adorning her hair. She stood calmly talking with Justin Timberlake, who was dressed in a pair of expensive-looking acid wash jorts, a fitted v-neck tee, and a pale red hoodie. Timberlake seemed upset and was gesticulating loudly, but it could have been just because Broken Aero had just started their rendition of ‘Pink,’ a song that Bob Fenster (of the website www.bobfenster.com) has aptly named one of the worst songs of all time. 

This didn’t phase the band’s singer from trying to start a sing-along with the audience: “Pink, is my new obsession, pink it’s not even a question.” Since every line of the song began with the word ‘pink,’ he thought that the audience would play along by calling out ‘pink’ with him. He was sorely disappointed, but the only qualification necessary for being a Steven Tyler imitator (aside from the body type, big lips, and a penchant for scarves) was perseverance. And persevere he did. Ruby was almost – almost – embarrassed enough for him to begin singing along, but ze was determined to stay focused on hir mission. The belt.